Main menu

Monthly Archives: September 2014

Children in their innocence can ask the best questions. I read of an eight-year- old who went on a field trip to the local police station. The sergeant in charge was taking them through the facility and showing them various parts of the system. He took them inside the jail and had them look through the bars. Then he said, “This is not where you want to be.”

This was certainly startling to the third graders. He let them look around and then took them to the pictures of the “Most Wanted” criminals posted on the bulletin board.

Then he said, “These are the people we are looking for that belong in jail.”

The eight-year-old raised his hand and said, “Why didn’t you keep them when you took their picture?”

Jimmy Durante was a singer, comedian, and actor during the early and middle part of the 20th century.

During World War II, Ed Sullivan asked Jimmy to entertain a group of soldiers who had just gotten back from the war and were temporarily staying on Ellis Island. Jimmy said he would but he only had time for a short performance because he had to catch a ferry in time to do his radio show back in New York.

But when Jimmy got on stage, something interesting happened. He went through a short monologue and then stayed. The applause grew louder and louder and he kept staying. Pretty soon, he had been on fifteen, twenty, and then thirty minutes.

Finally he took a last bow, and left the stage. Backstage someone stopped him and said, “I thought you had to go after a few minutes. What happened?”

Jimmy answered, “I did have to go, but I can show you the reason I stayed. You can see for yourself if you’ll look down on the front row. “

In the front row were two men, each of whom had lost an arm in the war. One had lost his right arm, and the other had lost his left. Together, they were able to clap, and that’s exactly what they were doing, loudly and cheerfully.